Voluntarily Dying
by Zephyrme
Summary: Who would join these games? Only the crazy! The suicidal! Those arrogant victory-seekers! The strong... Let's see who wins in this SYOT. S-Y-O-T Open!
1. Intro

25 Past a Century

The new President of Panem, Andrius Tolkwood, a man of no more than 40 years old, smoothens his suit as he walks towards the podium. He walks in his normal posture as if a backpack was slung over his shoulder. However, he remembers with a sudden thought that he is in public. Straightening his back, he walks to the microphone as the flashes of cameras splash onto the scene.

It is evening, precisely after the Quarter Quell dinner party. The moon, now in its crescent form is already present, seeming to be too impatient to wait for its partner, the Sun, to set. It seems that they both are wanting to see this year's special event.

The Hunger Games were beginning once again this year. They were an event… A reminder… A punishment, more like… For those who rebelled against the Capitol in Panem's time of safety. A young male and female youth from the ages of 12 – 18 were brought together from each district in an arena to fight to the death. This originally was true for only those from Districts 1 – 12. District 13, at a certain time, was deemed to be destroyed by the other districts.

However, after the second rebellion, District 13 had joined in the Games, making a total of 26 children. These children are called 'tributes' and must fight to the death while also maintaining safety throughout the arena. The arena is some sort of ecosystem controlled by the gamemakers, Capitolites whose jobs are to make and control the arena and the beasts that are within it, called muttations, or often shortened to mutts.

Long story short, 26 teenagers joined up and fought to the death. 25 would die trying for victory while 1 survived, living their life as a mentor to future tributes with endless riches and supplies for their family from the Capitol.

However, to make a glorified version of the games, a way to remind the rebels of their wrong doing, every twenty-five years, a certain twist was added into that year's Games. Those games are called Quarter Quells. And as the one-hundred and twenty-fifth year of the Games, this was certainly a Quell and everybody was certainly waiting for President Tolkwood to announce the twist.

Not very far away, a little girl, wearing a prim hat and mini-scarf along with a simple white dress sat on a bench, waiting to be called by the President. For a century (and more), this old box was used to keep envelopes. Within those envelopes were the twists for the Games. Several envelopes were in the box meaning that the founding fathers expected the Hunger Games to last.

The President then starts reminding the audience of the previous Quarter Quells, "On the twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that their children were dying because of their choice to initiate violence, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it." A loud excited noise was heard throughout the world as the President's speech was broadcasted. The President himself was busy trying to remember exactly what he had practiced for months before this.

"On the fiftieth anniversary," the president continues, "as a reminder that two rebels died for each Capitol citizen, every district was required to send twice as many tributes."

The excitement continues. It's almost time. Half way until he would read the new twist!

"On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes were reaped from their existing pool of victors." The squealing of the watching Capitolites had come now. One more reminder before the actual new Quarter Quell twist.

"On the one-hundredth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that they have no external help, alliances were forbidden and in addition, there were no sponsor gifts of any kind."

"And now we honor our fifth Quarter Quell," says the president. The little girl in white hops down from her bench and walks to the President. She opens the lid of the box revealing several yellow envelopes lined with mold and a dead cockroach on top of one. The president removes an envelope clearly marked in red with a 125. He runs his finger under the flap, causing a small ripping sound and pulls out a small square of paper. Now, the Capitolites are silent with excitement.

Without hesitation, he reads, "On the one-hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that it was they who volunteered to initiate violence, male and female tributes will be reaped from a pool of those who wish to volunteer."

Being peppered with flowers, claps, and flashes from cameras, the President walks back to the dressing room, thinking about how this twist will affect the districts.

Make one tribute: 35 points (if female) and 40 points (if male)  
For every day one of your tributes survives: + 10 points  
One of your tributes kills another tribute: 15 points (during bloodbath) 25 points (when not)  
If your tribute is in an alliance: +10 points for every day your tribute and all allies (after bloodbath) survive.  
If your tribute is alone:+5 points for every two days your tribute survives.  
If your tribute kills a mutt: 10 points  
If your tribute dies naturally (without anybody killing them or killing themselves): 20 points  
If I think that the Capitol will generally like your tribute: It depends  
If you solve the little quiz at the end of a few chapters: It depends on what I say  
If you write a thorough and critical review: 20 points

Sponsor Things:

This is a basic list of basic things. If you want something that is not on this list, simply ask and you can negotiate the point price with me.

Weapons:  
One Dagger: 10 points  
Two Throwing Knives: 15 points  
One Quiver (12 arrows): 15 points  
One Dart Package (15 darts): 15 points  
One Sword: 25 points  
One Axe: 25 points  
One Scythe: 25 points  
One Bow (no arrows): 30 points  
Small Amount of Poison (A few drops): 45 points  
Large Sword/Axe: 45 points  
Etc.: Negotiate

Survival Help Things:  
Pack of Matches (15 matches): 10 points  
Small Length of Rod: 10 points  
Iodine (Small): 15 points  
Plastic Food Container (Small): 15 points  
Hammer: 20 points  
Pack of Candles (Six candles): 20 points  
Water Thermometer: 20 points  
Pot: 20 points  
Pan: 20 points  
Etc.: Negotiate

Clothing:  
Negotiate

Food:  
Water Bottle: 10 points  
Cheese and Bread: 10 points

Your District Bread: 15 points  
Small Pan of Choice Food: 20 points  
Pot of Soup/Broth: 25 points  
Large Cake/Pie/Stash of Muffins: 25 points  
Choice Spice: 25 points  
Snack of choice: 25 points  
Bag of Sugar/Salt: 30 points  
Tea bags, coffee mix, and cups: 30 points  
Breakfast of choice: 30 points  
Lunch of choice: 35 points  
Dinner of choice: 40 points  
Very Large Meal: 45 points

Etc.: Negotiate

Here is my tribute sheet, a little hefty work, I know, but it'll be worth it:

Name  
Nickname (optional):  
Age:  
Gender:  
District:  
Token (optional):  
Appearance (descriptive!):  
Personality (descriptive!):  
Job (In District):  
Family:  
Friends:  
In-District, Pre-Games, Love Interest?:  
Why Your Tribute Wished to Volunteer:  
Allies:  
Arena Romance?:  
Fear:  
Strengths (Min. 3, Max. 5):  
Weaknesses (Make them the same amount as strengths):  
Weapon (not weapons) of choice:  
Weapon Accuracy (Rate it from 1-10):  
Second Weapon of choice:  
Weapon Accuracy (1-10):  
Worst Weapon:  
Weapon Accuracy (1-10):  
Behavior in Public:  
Private Session Strategy: (Do they do the best that they can or save their strength showing for the arena? Do they lessen their score to not be a career magnet, or do they heighten it to be a sponsor magnet?)  
Strategy in Arena:  
Bloodbath Participant?:  
Opinion on the Capitol:  
Opinion on the Hunger Games:  
Where your tribute would run to after bloodbath: (An area where it is easy to hide, stay with allies?, just wide open space to be able to see the enemy. Something that matches with your tribute)  
(Optional Things)  
Reaping Outfit:  
Parade Outfit Ideas:  
Interview Outfit:  
Interview Quote:

PM me to submit. I don't accept reviews. Everything will eventually be on my profile, so don't worry. It's in control. 


	2. The Meeting

Hello everybody! There are some things that I need to explain here. You can make a maximum of _3 tributes_. Keep note that if you do make three, you can get a minimum of 105 points and a maximum of 120 depending on what gender your tributes are. And also, the first 7 tributes that are sent to me and accepted by me are safe from bloodbath. So quickly sending tributes to me can give you a larger chance of winning. Anyway, here's a short story to answer a question that you might have…

**Horace Gative  
District 5 Ambassador to the Capitol**

I stand in the elevator next to Nadia Helmswidth, District 3 Ambassador to the Capitol. She chatters on saying, "Bernard is elated. Because only those who wish to volunteer will have a chance of death this year. District 3 is overjoyed at this and thankfully, we have several brave volunteers. I am not sure how many exactly, but we will see in my presentation."

Nadia is talking about Bernard 'Bernie' Helmswidth, her father's brother's son, that is to say: Her cousin. He also happens to be mayor of District 3. Nadia invented this sort of statistical online system that collects the information of which children would want to volunteer. The President, delighted, made her the Ambassador instead of old Prometheus Tolkien, who had recently gone mad. The President called together all of the Ambassadors of the Districts to meet with him and Head Gamemaker, Iapetus Howe to discuss things.

So here I am, standing in an elevator which is destined for our meeting floor. I actually have no complaints here, because with all that busy work at the Embassy now that the games are coming, I'm glad that I can temporarily handover my responsibility to my Assistant Ambassador. The elevator dings and a woman's voice says, "Roof" in a cool and calm way. Apparently, the elevator reached the roof and apparently, this was where Iapetus told us to meet.

The elevator opens and Nadia stops her chattering abruptly. The other Ambassadors are arriving. A helicopter gently lands on the rooftop, District 1 Ambassador Lyla Pride stepping out. Crossing a bridge connecting this meeting building to the train station, the Ambassadors of Districts 7, 9, 12, and 13 arrive. Iapetus is already here, staring into the distance with the Ambassadors of 2, 10, and 4. A flash in the distance indicates that District 6 Ambassador Mercury O'Hare is arriving on his hovercraft. And in the other elevator, the Ambassador of District 8 steps out, closely followed by the fidgety and small District 11 Ambassador.

Gamemaker Howe turns around scanning the number of Ambassadors. Finding that all 13 were present at the moment, he says, "Now that we are all present, we shall meet the President." He walks to the center of the roof, the other Ambassadors following him. Ambassador O'Hare pushes a button on his hovercraft which neatly folds up into a metallic disc that he drops in his pocket. He is last to walk to us.

Howe taps the ground with foot. _Tap! Tap-Tap! Tappppppppp! _The area that we stand in lowers rotating. We are now on the floor below the roof. President Andrius Tolkwood is already seated at the end of a meeting table.

Nadia produces a projector and a laptop from her bag. She starts up the laptop and connects it to the projector, which she places on a small table in front of the meeting table. The Ambassadors take their seats. Howe is on the seat opposite of President Tolkwood. Howe passes out pins with numbers on them. I take the one with the number 5 and I toss a pin with the number 3 to Nadia, who nearly drops it when she catches it.

"Welcome to the Meeting Tower," President Tolkwood says to us, "And I suppose that you already know why we are here. However, I will state it once again. We are grouping here because Ms. Helmswidth wishes to show us her new program. Nadia nods as robots move smoothly into the room, serving cups of coffee and tea. I take a cup of civet cat coffee and place it in front of me just as the robots place plates of biscuits and cookies in front of us.

"Now that we have our refreshments, let us see what Ms. Helmswidth has to show us." Gamemaker Howe says, looking more interested however, in his cup of coffee rather than the projection of Nadia's program.

Nadia loads up the internet and eventually arrives on a page that has statistics on it. There are the signs of all Districts and two bars (one pink, one blue) next to each one. Some are increasing at a steady speed and some show no signs of moving forwards. There are numbers under the bars. "As you can see, these are the current results for who exactly is volunteering," Nadia says, "I have already ordered the mayors of all Districts to set up a computer lab devoted entirely to those who want to volunteer. The simply have to find their own name and face and click 'Volunteer' to get into the list."

District 9 Ambassador Ernie Maizel looks worriedly at his District's statistics. "Is the blue bar supposed to be male volunteers?" He asks nervously.

"Yes, and the pink is for females." Nadia says. I look at District 9's bars. Or I should say, bar. There is a small pink bar with the number 5 underneath it. The blue bar is nowhere to be seen and there is the number 0 in its place.

President Tolkwood says, "How interesting. Thank you, Ms. Helmswidth for showing us this page. It seems as though there are no male volunteers from District 9, no female volunteers from District 8, and no volunteers at all from District 12. I greatly hope that this changes in the future. I will send personal messages to Mayor Hummus, Mayor Needle, and Mayor Potent for assistance with this issue."

I look at the District 5 bars which both have considerable length. I sigh as I look at the expressions of the Ambassadors from 2 and 13 who are both staring each other down. District 2 and District 13's bars are neck and neck, all four of them continuously growing. Hah! Well what do you know? This will cause an interesting career pack this year.

Sooooooooooooooooooooo… How did you like this short chapter? Please state so in a review. Remember, a constructive one can earn you a considerable amount of points! Also, don't forget to tell others about this or else there may not even be a point where I can write! I greatly lack tributes as of now, so please tell others or submit more! Thank you!


End file.
